Becoming a Tidbit “Source Spot” for Indianapolis Blog Writers

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Doctor writing RX prescriptionDesk #95 at the back of the U.S. Senate Chamber is where you find the candy.

When George Murphy came to the U.S. Senate in 1965, he brought along his sweet tooth, and, even after he lost his seat five years later, the “Candy Desk” kept going, maintained today by Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois.

Since I fancy myself something of a “source spot” for business blog content ideas, collecting tidbits of information like the Candy Desk story has become my stock in trade.  If we open our minds to it, I’m convinced, we Indianapolis content writers can make very good use of such on-the-surface-useless information. In fact, I have a name for the process of pinpointing these gems – tidbit mining. Two of my favorite tidbit “gold mines” are Mental Floss magazine and The Book of Totally Useless Information.

The whole idea, as I explain in corporate blogging training sessions, is to provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know. Tidbits help engage online readers’ interest.

A couple of really good tidbit examples from the September issue of Mental Floss magazine have to do with handwriting:

  • How does the post office decipher bad penmanship? When a machine finds an illegibly addressed letter, it sends a digital image to a special plant in Salt Lake City, where 700 specially trained clerks crack the code, usually in under 3 seconds. If the process fails, the letters are christened nixies and ultimately end up in the shredder.
  • The Institute of Medicine reports that 1.5 million injuries occur each year because pharmacists or hospital workers misread the handwriting on the prescription.

Who might incorporate this information into their marketing blog posts?  Well, corporate mailing handling and mail forwarding service companies, for starters. (I found no fewer than 50 million Google results by searching “mail handling services for business). Then what about someone blogging about teaching cursive in public school? Tutoring services might use this information to talk about preparing students for the world of work. And what about pharmacy schools and physicians’ assistant degree programs attempting to attract students?

Business blog content writers – never underestimate the power of a good tidbit!

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The Problem With Hero Action Beginnings for Business Blog Posts

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Too organized for in medias res type business blog writing (that’s where you intrigue readers by going right to thehero conflict, then jump back to an earlier, quieter part of the story to deliver the information they need to understand the concepts)? Novelist Cheri Laser has at least three other suggestions for ways to begin a novel.  You might like to use what Laser calls a “hero action beginning” for your blog posts.

“In a hero action beginning, the hero is onstage, doing something active and interesting related to launching the core story,” explains Laser. For us Indianapolis freelance blog content writers, the equivalent would be a bold statement of what our business owner or professional client has to offer.

My friend and fellow blogger Thaddeus Rex lists “Four Ways STUFF has of Differentiating Itself”. A hero action beginning for a blog post might include one of those:

1. Features – your product or service can do something your competitors can’t (or yours does it better).
2. Location – your product/service is available someplace your competitors’ is not (or it’s more easily available)
3. Service – the buying experience you provide sets you apart
4. Cost – you’re the cheapest or the most expensive (exclusivity).

Of course, the secret, as Rex so rightly points out, is to really know your audience, so you know which of those things will be most likely to appeal.

When it comes to blogging (as compared to say, ads, billboards, or even brochures), the potential problem is that this sort of hero action beginning has a way of bordering on being a “boast session” of the things. Fine to let online readers know about what you have and about the things you do, but keep this in mind:  It has to be about them!

In one recent issue of Speaker Magazine, authors offer tips to professional speakers who want to launch books they’ve written. “Don’t tell your prospects how great you are; tell them how great they will feel when the ideas in your book relieve the pain they’re experiencing.”

Hero action beginnings can be great as “grabbers” in business blog posts, with one proviso – remember that the real hero of any blog post had better be – the reader!

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Beginning a Business Blog Post In Medias Res

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Duckling lying between two rabbits against white backgroundThere are four different ways to begin a novel, explains author Cheri Laser, with a less commonly used choice of the four, yet a favorite of hers, being “In Medias Res”, meaning “into the middle of things”.

An in medias res novel, Laser adds, introduces the characters and the conflicts at the mid-point or at the conclusion, then flashes back to catch up. The concept? Intrigue the reader, then jump back to an earlier, quieter part of the story to deliver the information readers need to understand the conflict.

Business blog content writers know the importance of intriguing and engaging readers, and of doing it right away. At Say It For You, I emphasize how big a deal it can be to get the “pow opening line” right. In SEO-conscious marketing blogs, of course, it may be the keyword phrases in the title that start the job of getting the blog found. But once a visitor has actually landed, though, it takes a great opener to fan that flicker of interest into a flame.

For today’s online searchers, that flicker-to-flame process is condensed, to say the least. “Every day, you fight a battle, competing with the internet, emails, texting and voicemail. “  Kimberly Yuhl of SteamFeed quotes a quite startling word quota from Statistic Brain: The average attention span in 2013 was 8 seconds. If the average adult listens to or reads one word per second, that gives us eight words to capture our readers’ attention.  “They had better be some powerful words,” advises Yuhl.

Darren Rowse of Problogger suggests starting with a question as one way to engage readers: Did you know….? How do you….? What’s one of the most common problems that…..? Do you want to learn how to…? Have you ever…? Do you ever wonder if…?

Another form of in medias res beginnings for business blogs is what Hector Cuevas calls the “shock and awe approach”, which involves starting posts by ”disagreeing with what is commonly accepted as the norm”. This, Cuevas suggests, “builds an instant sense of curiosity and brings up questions that your readers need answered.” The caution, he adds, is that your content needs to clearly explain your point of view.

For your next business blog post, consider starting in media res!

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A Writing Prompt Challenge for Business Bloggers

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How do you “ignite your creativity engine” and “fuel your inspiration”? Glowing light bulb in row of switched off ones on yellow. Front view

Writers’ Digest advises novelists to use story starters or writing prompts. And while as blog content writers, we aren’t dealing in fiction, at least some of the 52 prompts suggested by Brian Klems and Cris Freese could conceivably pump up the creativity level of our content marketing.

In fact, I challenge readers of this Say It For You blog to write in ideas about how they’d go about using one of these prompts in one of their own posts.

My own favorites from among the Writers’ Digest prompts:

  • “You return home from work to find a ‘Dear John’ letter on your table.  Oddly, it’s from a FUTURE romantic relationship.  What does the letter say?”

(Couldn’t professional service providers use this? In what ways might the blog reader’s future relationship with you either succeed or fail? Paint a picture of what it’s like being a client or patient in your service or practice.)

  • “You’re trying to read the morning newspaper when your cat begins pawing at your leg.  You brush him away, but he jumps on the table and begins meowing.  Final, the cat speaks.  What does he say?”

Successful business blog writing reminds online searchers of the annoyances and frustrations they are have in dealing with their present service providers, and that you and your staff have the experience, the information, the products, and the services to solve exactly those problems and meet precisely those needs.

  • “At work, you’ve been getting a Post-it note on your desk every morning that reads, ‘Why did you do it?’ You’ve talked to your boss, the night cleaning crew and your co-workers, but no one seems to know who’s putting the note there or why.  You decide to work through the night in hopes of catching the person.”

In many marketing blogs, the blog content writers focus on appealing to consumers’ fear.  To appeal to a better kind of customer – the kind that buys for the right reasons and then remains loyal, I train writers to appeal to readers’ better nature and focus on the problem-solving aspects of the offered products and services.

Ask yourself:  Could writing prompts pump up the creativity level of my blog?

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Bad Business Bloggers of the World, Untie!

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By his own description, Richard Lederer is a verbivore.  Fans refer to him as the “poster godfather of good grammar”.  Lederer is able to laugh about common grammar mistakes writers make. Myself, I have a harder time suppressing my anger, particularly when it comes to bad grammar and incorrect spelling sins committed by blog content writers.

True (as I’m fond of mentioning in corporate blogging training sessions), the language used in blogging can be – in fact should be – more conversational than the stuff you might find in a company’s brochures or on their website’s “About” page, so that, depending on the target audience, blog writers are OK bending grammar rules by a bit.

But, as Richard Lederer reminds us (albeit with a smile), some of the crimes committed against our precious English language are definitely not on the OK list. “Every time you make a typo,” Lederer writes, “the errorists win.”

Copyblogger’s Brian Clark explains that while bloggers try to write the way people speak, there are certain mistakes that detract from your credibility, including four mix-ups:

  • Your vs. You’re
  • It’s vs. Its
  • There vs. Their
  • Affect vs. Effect

Gini Dietrich on American Express’ Open Forum worries that creators of customer-target content’s worry about the grammar police (I proudly sport my badge) can create writer’s block. The most important thing, she says it to “get the writing out of you. It can always be fixed to perfection later.” Still, Dietrich says, if you can learn to avoid basic errors (she mentions Brian Clark’s items of your/you’re, they’re/there, then adds the total no-no “irregardless), you’re off to a good start.

HubSpots’s Ginny Soskey adds a few errors to the watch list, breaking the news that
“alot” is simply not a word, and cautioning writers to use “who”, not “that” when referring to a person: “Ginny is a blogger who likes ice cream.”

Judging from the search results when I Google “grammar and spelling mistakes in blogging”, everybody seems to be conscious of the problem. Still, the more I keep reminding blog content writers in Indianapolis how important it is to be fastidious using our language, the more examples of sloppiness seem to stare me in the face whenever I surf.

“Bad spellers of the world, untie!” quips Richard Lederer.  Professional ghost bloggers of the world, unite!” is all I have to say! Are you going to stand there and let those errorists win?

 

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